Once scattered throughout different buildings across campus, the School of Engineering at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville is now consolidated in a four-story, 129,000-square-foot facility. It is designed not only to accommodate classrooms, laboratories and offices, but also to confirm the school's position as a major research center in the MidwestSignifying that position is the three-story curtainwall with a truss system that spans from the first floor to the roof. Because of the height what was envisioned by the project architect, FGM Architects and Engineers of Belleville, Ill., had seldom been executed by any manufacturer. According to Dennis Branner, owner of the project's erector, Branner Glass, Springfield, Ill., the biggest aluminum plate truss system that had previously been used was 37 feet high. It was a challenge to find a manufacturer with the engineering expertise to accomplish the 47-foot-high, 28-inch-deep, free-span system. That's when EFCO stepped in with its System 5600 pressure curtain wall.
展开▼
